The City of Brass sparked my interest, unveiling a rich and vibrant world with complex characters. The Kingdom of Copper launched the series to new heights, playing with my emotions in ways few other series have. Together, the first two books of the Daevabad Trilogy had set my expectations unrealistically high for the final book. So how did it measure up?
S.A. Chakraborty stuck the landing. The Empire of Gold is her most impressive work yet.
After the second book trampled my heart to pieces, this one slowly began stitching it back together. It can be excruciating to watch characters I love act horrendously to each other, and I was worried that would dominate Empire of Gold. There’s very little I love more in a book than being pleasantly surprised by how wholesome and supportive characters can be to each other. Without giving too much away, let’s just say I was happily surprised on more than one occasion.
The story starts out a little slow, allowing the characters to recover from and process the traumatic events of Kingdom of Copper and put the final pieces in place for concluding each major character arc. For a book that’s nearly 800 pages long, it was a refreshing change of pace before the epic conclusion.
Like most of my favorite books, the ending the Daevabad trilogy delivers is bittersweet. Granted, it leans more toward sweet than the bitterness I expected. This is not a book that shies away from death, but Chakraborty proves time and again that death is not the only way to torment a beloved character or pull on readers’ heartstrings.
This is a book about family: the ones we’re born with and the duty owed them, as well as the ones we choose and how far we’ll go to help them. It’s also a book about sacrifice. One of the main distinctions between the protagonists and antagonists of the series is whether they’re willing to sacrifice themselves for others or vice versa. And—perhaps ironically in a story so strife with violent conflict—it’s a book about peace.
Endings are a tricky thing. They have to feel final, but the lives of the surviving characters don’t simply end with the turning of the last page. Chakraborty strikes a delicate balance between the two, closing the story with what could almost be a new beginning.
If The Empire of Gold is a bit of an emotional roller coaster, I have to say that it was an intensely enjoyable ride. Remember what I said about my heart being stitched back together? That can be every bit as painful as it sounds, but the end result makes it all worth it.
Listen to our podcast interview with S.A. Chakraborty discussing The Empire of Gold!
